Nintendo Badge center - A quick thought

“i can’t afford to not care anymore.”

sans (Undertale)

So for once I’m going to put up my serious face and gonna discuss something important. Nintendo. Although I’ve been ignoring the company’s rather unwise decisions, I think right now is a good time to discuss something that I’ve been angered by for a long time.

What is it?

The Nintendo Badge Center was an application first released in 2014 in Japan. It has recently made it’s way to America and Europe. The application features a crane like mini-game with the ability to grab badges (wow seriously, I wouldn’t have guessed!). The badges can then be used to decorate your homescreen.

What is the issue?

It’s a blatant cash-in. It costs you one dollar (or one euro) for five plays at a crane machine. Note that the crane machine itself is like crane machines in real life, meaning that if you don’t catch a badge with five playes (suprisingly easy to do so), you essentially threw away your cash. Although there is a practice catcher which grants you a free daily play, none of the badges caught in the practice catcher are considered to be real. The host of the catcher, a bunny, also keeps trying to make you part way with your cash.

How can this be fixed?

Play coins. That is a function on the 3ds, when you walk 100 steps, you get a play coin. Use those as an available currency, and the app is no longer a cash in.